It Takes Two To Tango
by Espionne
Summary: A collection of short drabbles involving our favorite cartoon couple, Sam and Tim Scam. Will add to this as time and ideas permit.
1. Right From The Start

Martha Blewett rubbed her aching temples and sighed, unsuccessfully trying to distract herself from the seemingly endless pile of manila folders on her desk. Yet as a senior staff member in WOOHP's Department of Human Resources, she knew she had a great responsibility to fulfill. "Remember, Martha," Jerry had sternly warned her on her first day on the job, "not just _anyone_ can work for WOOHP."

That turned out to be truer than she was expecting: each prospective recruit's personality and behavior was carefully monitored starting from a young age, and the agency always had to be alert for any new tips or information pertaining to a promising future agent. Turning her bloodshot gaze back to the table, she felt a little relieved as she put away the last folder marked 'R' – the first letter of the last name of each potential recruit. It wouldn't take much longer now.

Smiling to herself, she reached down towards the next section, the one marked 'S', and picked out two more folders from it. The neatly typed labels read 'SCAM, TIMOTHY' and 'SIMPSON, SAMANTHA' respectively. Martha opened the first one absentmindedly as her eyes fell upon a newspaper clipping inside.

_Excerpt:_

_1997-98 CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIC ALL-STARS_

_Presented annually, this award serves the purpose of recognizing and honoring the state's most talented graduating seniors. Their achievements and self-reported biographies follow below._

_Name: Timothy (Tim) Scam_

_Age: 16_

_Hometown: Los Angeles, CA_

_Parents: Aaron & Jennifer Scam (both deceased)_

_High School: Westside High School_

_College Plans: Massachusetts Institute of Technology_

_Intended Major: Physics/Engineering_

_Awards and Achievements: 4.0 GPA. Grand Prize Winner, Los Angeles County Science and Engineering Fair. Physics Club President. Took multivariable calculus and quantum mechanics at a local college after exhausting high school's math and science sequence. Graduating early from high school. Most Valuable Player, Westside HS Varsity Wrestling. Named to All-State Wrestling Academic Team. _

_About Me: I enjoy a good challenge and am always seeking out new opportunities to push my own limits. Math and physics are my favorite academic subjects, and when I'm not engaged in an adrenaline-inducing wrestling match, I love either tinkering with or building various things. I intend to enter science or engineering once I'm done with school, but at the end of the day I'd also appreciate having a job that utilizes all my talents to the fullest. _

_Sponsoring Teacher: Mr. Patrick Greene (Physics)_

_Teacher's Comments: "Without a doubt, this young man is the brightest I've ever seen in my thirty-year career of teaching high school physics. His sheer brilliance and impeccable work ethic are virtually unmatched."_

Printed alongside the list of staggering accomplishments was a colored photograph of a teenage boy smirking into the camera in a self-assured manner. Despite rolling her eyes at his obvious display of pride, Martha had to admit that he was also one of the most handsome young men she'd ever encountered. His piercing sea-foam gaze, though printed on paper, seemed to penetrate anything it came into contact with, and his slightly rugged features clearly showed off the fact that he exercised regularly and kept himself in top-notch physical condition.

Martha turned past the clipping and saw a note in Tim's folder that he'd already been recommended to WOOHP once when he was even younger, from an elementary school science teacher who doubled as a secret agent. Now that he was reaching maturity, his abilities were even more manifested and it was easy to see why he'd been recommended in the first place. _He'd make a great addition to WOOHP's weapons department, _Martha thought to herself. She flipped through more pages in his file and discovered that on top of everything, he had the elusive 'Spy Gene' that WOOHP coveted in each of its agents: his father had cousins in Russia who'd led double lives as civilians and Soviet spies in earlier decades. _A clear recruit, _Martha decided, stamping her personal seal of approval onto the folder.

As soon as she opened the second file, Martha could tell that it belonged to a child, as there were only a few pieces of information within. She spotted and took out yet another newspaper clipping among the haphazard collections of the girl's bio-data and family tree, opting to read it first.

_THE BAY AREA DAILY – YOUR LOCAL NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1923_

_GIRL, 7, WINS SPEEDCUBING COMPETITION FOR YOUTH_

_San Francisco – The annual 'QuikCube', a Rubik's Cube speed-solving competition, always draws massive crowds of children aged 10 and under. It began ten years ago as a simple neighborhood contest, but due to the game's popularity, it soon expanded to include the entire city of San Francisco and surrounding areas. This year, however, there's another reason for all the attention: for the first time in the competition's history, the champion is a girl. _

_To most people, 7-year-old Samantha Simpson looks like just another first-grader. She enjoys skipping rope and playing tag with her friends during recess time at Oak Park Elementary, and owns a substantial collection of stuffed toys and dolls. But when she gets home, she likes to curl up with copies of classic tomes. "I've read 'A Tale of Two Cities' three times already," she smiles, revealing several missing teeth as she does so. "It's one of my favorite books." For perspective, this comment is coming from a first-grader, while the local 11th graders are poring over the same book for their English classes. _

_Samantha also engages in other activities that put her far ahead of her peers intellectually, such as assembling 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles, learning to play the accordion, visiting art museums and libraries during her spare time, and of course, speed cubing. "I used to be really bad at Rubik's cubing when I got my first cube two years ago," she admits with a shrug. "But I just practiced a lot and improved." _

_Her parents, John and Gabriella Simpson, are partners at the Simpson & Simpson Co. law firm in downtown San Francisco. "We never pushed Sammie towards any of these things," Gabby says. "She just seems to be interested in them. We're only following her wherever her interests take her." _

_With so much promise and potential, it is clear that this remarkable little girl will be doing great things someday. Samantha's answer as to her future plans? "I might become a lawyer like my parents, or maybe a scientist," she says. "But I love solving problems and helping people more than anything else. Hopefully I'll get a job where I'll get to put these together and help solve the world's problems."_

"Wow," Martha breathed to herself, thoroughly impressed with the girl. She couldn't help but notice the similarities between both the folders she'd just read: both young people were extremely intelligent, ambitious and driven; a quick look at Samantha's bio-data form revealed that she also possessed the 'Spy Gene' and thus was also fit for fieldwork.

"Why can't all the prospective recruits be like them?" Martha wondered aloud, furrowing her brow as she mentally went through the other folders she'd read earlier that day. There were two other girls who were also Samantha's age – Clover Ewing and Alexandra Vasquez, she recalled – but neither of them demonstrated as much potential as Samantha, let alone Timothy. Alexandra's level of physical fitness was impressive for a child of her age, but it came along with a downside: she was just too clumsy. As far as Clover was concerned, at this point in time she seemed to be just like any other little girl and was especially prone to being distracted by fashionable items. Martha had marked both of their folders with a note: _Further Consideration Required._

For Samantha and Timothy, though, the decision was clear. "Perhaps both of them should work together," Martha mused, thinking that this would actually not be such a bad idea due to the pair's similar personalities and interests. She couldn't guarantee their exact positions and functions within the organization – that was ultimately Jerry's job – but she decided to leave him a helpful note anyway. Attaching both files together with a large paperclip, she produced another sticky note and hastily scribbled: _Suggestion: maybe Scam & Simpson should work together. See information within for details._

And after she'd done so, Martha suddenly got an odd, yet peaceful feeling that she'd just finished her greatest, most important task for the day.


	2. The Kiss

"Come on, Sammie! Finish him off!"

Her trapped friends' desperate cries echoed loudly in her ears. Despite the fact that she was extremely tired and that there was also a loud throbbing in her eardrums that made her wince, her furious glare was directed at the criminal that stood before her smirking cockily.

_Tim Scam._

No matter how many times he was captured and locked back into his prison cell, he never seemed to tire of escaping, of challenging them at every turn. It had started out with him posing as their new WOOHP guardian while he was busy trying to eliminate Jerry. Then came the episode involving brainwashing their mothers, followed by the liquid-metal robots, and then the plot to turn Jerry himself evil. The spies would certainly have had a much easier time if it weren't for him.

"But our general well-being is just about the last item on his priority list," Sam muttered angrily to herself, narrowing her eyes in frustration at him. His smirk only grew wider as he observed how irritated she was at this point.

"Given up already, Samantha?" he taunted, leisurely putting his gloved hands into the pockets of his trench coat. "Tsk, tsk. I always thought you were more resilient than that."

Sam felt herself rolling her eyes at his obvious arrogance as she resisted a strong urge to march up to him and slap his face. "For your information, _Scam_," she retorted, adding a spiteful emphasis on his name, "_you_ are completely unarmed. _I_ happen to have gadgets on me. You're at a disadvantage, so you might as well acknowledge that right now and surrender!" She ignored her gut feeling that the last part of what she said would never actually happen, no matter how much she wished it would.

Scam walked over to her calmly before standing mere inches from her. _Why is he so close to me? _Sam wondered nervously. Her hand closed around her gadget behind her back and she felt slightly better, though it didn't help that she could feel his warm breaths brushing across the orange-red strands of her hair and traveling across her skin.

Looking at her with a raised eyebrow he spoke. "Yes, you may be armed," he replied nonchalantly, "but even if you do succeed in capturing me, what difference will it make? You know I'm only going to break out again – and again – and again." His sea-foam eyes glinted with amusement and irreverence as he watched Sam fuming with rage. Even though she didn't want to admit it, he knew that she knew he was right.

"Aw, look at you," Scam went on, deciding to prod her ego some more. "For being WOOHP's top spy, it seems that not even your best efforts can stop me." He snickered slightly, shaking his head. "Seriously, Samantha, I thought you were supposed to be smart. What's stopping you from taking me down? I _am _just one man, after all, and as you said yourself earlier, I am also unarmed." Seeing the hurt written all over her face, he knew he had touched a nerve right then and there, for she prided herself on her intelligence and on her ability to outsmart virtually every criminal the girls had ever faced.

Every criminal except _him_, that is, for reasons she never wanted to tell.

Brushing the last thought off, she faced him with an even more murderous glare than she thought was possible. "I _can _take you down, Scam, and I _will!" _she shrieked at him. Grinning smugly to herself, she finally produced the gadget she'd been hiding the whole time, and Clover and Alex, who were tied up in a far away corner watching the whole ordeal, widened their eyes when they saw it.

It was a modified version of the Immobilizing Stun-Tan Lotion, the same gadget Jerry had used on Scam, effectively halting his plans for vaporizing the entire earth's waters. Sam held out the gadget and began walking closer to him. "Remember this, Scam?" she mocked. "From what I've heard, they've made this thing even deadlier from when you last remember. As far as that pink sticky bubble that eventually trapped you… well, let's just say it now has the ability to suffocate its captives to death."

But instead of gaping at the weapon in horror and pleading for mercy as Sam had expected, Scam just gazed at her with a small smirk on his face. "Alright," he shrugged, "let's see you actually try to _kill _me with it."

His smirk grew as he watched her falter while the gadget wavered in her shaking hand. "It's just as I expected…" he teased, "…In spite of everything you believe, you wouldn't dare to even attempt pulling that one off."

Seeing how weak she was in the face of Tim Scam, who was supposed to be her worst enemy, Sam cursed at herself as she slid down to the floor weakly, her exhaustion finally overcoming her as she blocked out Clover and Alex's screams to get back on her feet. Before she could stop herself, the tears started flowing from her eyes and she was finally beginning to realize what she looked like according to him: a young, helpless, pathetic woman. For someone who valued duty, loyalty, and responsibility so much, why was it that she could not bring herself to even lay a finger on Scam?

As she sobbed, she didn't notice when Scam lowered himself onto one knee and lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. "I think I know what's going on here, Samantha," she heard him say, and she blinked her eyes in confusion. _What was he talking about? _

Scam smirked. "You're secretly still in love with me."

Audible gasps sprang from the three girls' mouths, and a few seconds later Clover and Alex were yelling at him indignantly, calling him all the worst names they could think of. But they gradually stopped when they saw that Sam wasn't reacting.

Her jaw had dropped open on its own accord and she was staring at him in disbelief. How was it possible that he still remembered her old crush on him? More importantly, how was it possible that he _knew _about the internal battle that had been eating her up inside ever since she'd met him? On the outside, she was a WOOHP spy and Jerry's favorite agent, an exemplary person whose strong character and moral conscientiousness were lauded by many. But on the inside, she was nothing but an ordinary woman who felt a strange attraction to Scam, who was essentially the polar opposite of what she stood for.

She hadn't dared to tell anyone – no, not even her closest friends – about any of these feelings, but even though she'd openly renounced any form of positive emotions that she'd ever harbored towards Tim Scam, something inside her still admired him more than ever. His resilience, his perseverance, and his ability to stick to his goals… those were all things she highly valued herself, even if he was working against WOOHP.

Sure, she acted indifferently each time she caught him and locked him away in his WOOHP cell, but somehow she couldn't bear the thought of doing him any bodily harm. The time when she'd reprogrammed his mind control corsages on her and her friends' mothers' wrists, she'd instantly felt awful when she saw how badly he was beaten up. She knew their mothers normally could never hurt anyone like that, but it just so happened that Scam's invention tapped into their natural aggression in such a way that his own creation was the very thing that led to his downfall.

Now, as she sat staring into his mesmerizing gaze, she couldn't help but smile shyly a little. Her mind was shouting at her, telling her this was wrong and that she should stop at once, but she also couldn't ignore her heart telling her that this was _so right. _

Scam returned her smile with yet another smirk. "Looks like I was correct then," he whispered.

Hearing his words and finally lacking the willpower to resist what she truly wanted, Sam's eyelids fluttered until they were half-closed. Ignoring her bound friends for a moment, she felt herself involuntarily leaning in towards him till her own lips touched his…

…in a kiss.


	3. Wrestling Match

Her eyes glowed dark crimson, an unholy shade of red that strongly hinted at the violence that had suddenly been unleashed from within her. Advancing slowly towards the two other girls who were backing away in turn, she relished in their horror-filled gazes and obvious fright. But she felt no sympathy for them, for she was a member of the Sisterhood and was naturally obliged to oppose anyone who stood in its path.

"Sam, snap out of it!" a voice cried out. It was coming from one of the two girls, the one she'd formerly known as Alex, the one she'd once called a friend… but none of that mattered now. "We're your friends, Alex and Clover! Don't you recognize us?"

A terrifying scowl crept across her lips as she stopped short in her tracks and glared at them. "Enemies of the Sisterhood are no friends of mine," she retorted.

None of the girls noticed the cloaked figure who was watching the whole scene from a hidden crevice between the rocks in the background. His eyebrows raised slightly as he silently observed the brainwashed girl, Samantha, menacing the very members of her own spy team. _Why couldn't she have done something like this earlier? _he wondered to himself. It would certainly have made his task of eliminating them much simpler.

But as much as he wanted to take advantage of the current situation, he was concerned for Sam's safety. Being subject to the mind control techniques of Ariel, some batty woman who had returned to fulfill her ambition of taking over the world with wrestling, she was in no condition to look out for hazards. If her own fury overpowered her, one false step could send her tumbling off the edge of the cliff not far away from where they were standing.

Upon the thought of Ariel, Tim Scam chuckled and shook his head in exasperation. She certainly had lost her mind if she thought she could really overpower all the men and so-called 'weak women' of the world with her army of hypnotized woman warriors. _Talk about a lame plan,_ he thought. Seeing Sam lunge at Clover, who then deftly stepped aside and left Sam to crash into the ground, he decided that now would be a good time to intervene.

"Oh great, of all the times _he _has to show up," he heard Alex mumble in frustration as she spotted Scam emerging from his hiding place. Clover struck her forehead with her palm and groaned audibly.

He didn't respond. Instead, he casually stepped in front of them so that he was standing between them and their brainwashed friend. Sam's glare grew more heated as Scam simply gave her an irreverent smirk.

"You're also an enemy," she hissed.

Scam's smirk grew deeper as a mischievous glint danced in his sea-foam orbs. "Glad to see you haven't forgotten that."

She growled in rage and threw herself at him in an attempt to trap him in a headlock, but was left stunned when he expertly turned her own move against her and pinned her to the ground. Sam's eyes widened as he kept her firmly positioned there, fully immobilized.

"In case you haven't already realized…" he drawled lazily, "biological differences between males and females make your goal of 'taking down everyone' impossible." He scoffed at the last part. She scowled again, but quickly had to resign herself to the fact that she was unable to move any of her limbs due to his body weight.

"Well, I never expected to say this… but… thanks a lot Scam!" Alex's slightly bewildered voice broke in. After a moment of awkward silence, she promptly turned around and shot off in Ariel's direction, grateful that Scam had at least spared them the trouble of having to get through Sam first. Clover merely gaped at Sam and Scam in a dumbfounded manner before she shook it off and ran to join Alex.

Thoroughly humiliated at this point, Sam seethed at the man who had his impassive gaze fixed on her as he arrogantly smirked. "For your information," she threatened, knowing that there was nothing else she could do, "I'm Samantha Simpson and I'm one of Ariel's Chosen Ones! I'm a Woman of Wrestling!"

Tim raised an eyebrow. "Wow, Sam, no offense but…" His smirk widened. "This mind-controlling thing must be really messing up your brain. Your threats are even sillier than I remember." At this, he threw his head back and laughed heartily.

Seeing that Scam had temporarily lost focus, Sam used the opportunity to push him off, pleased with herself when he grunted a little in surprise. She charged at him like an angry bull, wanting him to pay for his insults, but yelped when he grabbed her arm, spun her around, and pushed her to the ground once more. As he did so, he grasped the end of her Expandable Cable Bungee Belt and tied her up with her own gadget at a breathtaking speed.

Unable to speak, and sensing that Ariel's mind-controlling powers were starting to wear off thanks to Clover and Alex battling her some distance away, Sam gulped as she glanced into Scam's darkening eyes, knowing she had lost.

He gave her a deadly smirk as he leaned over her.

"I'm Tim Scam," he whispered sarcastically, mimicking the empty threat she'd made moments ago, "and not only was I _also_ a top WOOHP spy, which you seem to be conveniently forgetting, I was named Most Valuable Player on the varsity wrestling team back in high school. We were undefeated for two years straight." The look in his sea-foam eyes was unmistakably evil as he leaned in closer and closer, till Sam could feel his warm breath tickling her cheeks.

"So much for being a Chosen One and all that other superstitious mumbo-jumbo."


	4. Cosmic

"Why?"

The question raced through her mind for what was probably the millionth time; a comet in perpetual free-fall, periodically orbiting her thoughts at the speed of its own light. Even in the stillness and solitude of her personal universe, all was not well.

"Why? Why did he choose this for himself when he could have had _so_ much more?"

She paused and carefully peered into the dark prison cell that was facing her. The man inside slept, unaware of the pair of eyes fixed on him. His observer quietly noted his chiseled features, his chocolate-brown locks, his muscular form…

"He had so much going for him. So then why? Why did he even bother?"

As she recalled the events of the past day, her face flushed a little at the memory of locating his personal file in the WOOHP database and reading the entirety of its contents: WOOHP's earliest observations of him, his resume, the blueprints of his most significant projects. She read the very first appraisal they'd written: "By far the brightest candidate we've had in a while." _Brightest. _He had been a star in every sense of the word, a star with a luminosity several orders of magnitude greater than those of his peers, such that they all appeared as mere dwarfs in comparison. There were the stacks of accomplishments, the prestigious awards, even the one-sentence recommendation letter from one of his MIT professors that simply read: "This man is a genius." In short, he was about as close to perfection as a mere mortal could get.

Since his arrival at WOOHP, he'd ascended the ladder till he was at the organization's very apex: the head of its weapons department. It was a position with great honor and responsibility, one that even Jerry himself had entrusted him with. He had continued to shine even in this position as a beacon of dazzling mastery, unmatched knowledge, and brilliant wit.

But at this point she stopped and frowned sadly, for from what she'd learned in her astronomy class, it was always the brightest stars that burned out first. Those great minds from the past that studied these types of physical phenomena had often made comparisons between them and various words of wisdom passed on from the ancients. One such story went as follows: far from being satisfied with his place at the right hand of the universe's Creator, a certain heavenly being named Lucifer had wanted more. Disgruntled and overtly arrogant, he led a rebel throng in a concerted effort to overthrow the very Creator Himself, but ultimately failed. Eternally disgraced and scorned, he was subsequently cast out of heaven in a flaming ball of fire, shrieking all the way towards his shameful doom.

Now, as she continued to stare into the gloomy depths of the condemned man's cell, she could see the parallels between his tale and Lucifer's. In her eyes, this man, in spite of his massive potential, had now been irreparably reduced to a pathetic person fixated solely on destructive revenge.

And it was at this point that the grim realization struck her: just like Lucifer, he was also in the depths of Hell. If Hell existed, she reasoned, it was not a literal furnace where people burned forever; rather, it was a mere metaphor to aid those with little imagination, to help them in grasping the everlasting despair experienced by those who had permanently fallen from grace by means of their own petty vindictiveness.

"Why? Why did he choose to do this, even when he surely knew the consequences?"

She heaved a sigh and turned away from the slumbering man, away from his devilishly good looks. Even as her boots clinked against the steely corridor while she walked, the bothersome question gradually faded from her mind, though she knew full well that, just like a real comet, it was destined to return time and again.


	5. Depression

_A/N: This drabble contains triggering material, particularly for those who are currently suffering from depression or experiencing suicidal ideation. If you fall into either category, please **STOP** reading immediately and go seek the assistance of a loved one or a trained medical professional now. They will be able to get you the help you need. Nothing is more valuable than your own life. _

* * *

She woke up again to a colorless world. _Great; here we go again. _How incredibly ironic that the latter thought had once been her mantra for zipping through each mission, each challenge, each day with spunk and energy. Now, it was nothing more than a tired sigh.

Speaking of being tired, she felt as though she was in a perpetual state of exhaustion. _How many hours had she slept last night again? Nine? Ten? _It didn't matter. All she wanted was just to close her eyes and sink back into that blissful realm of slumber, where she wouldn't have to deal with her rapidly deteriorating relationship with her friends, the fact that her parents were all the way across the Atlantic, and the frightening realization that perhaps – _just perhaps – _she wasn't the strong, independent-minded young woman that everyone had once said she was anymore.

She tried closing her eyes again, but she simply could not fall back asleep in spite of her efforts. She heard Clover and Alex laughing outside, the faint clinks of metal as they tossed their dishes into the sink, and the running of tap water. It was as though she didn't exist in this house at all. Clover was busy talking about some cute new boy she had just met in one of her classes, and Alex was thrilled about the upcoming regional soccer championship. She couldn't even recall the last time she had been excited for anything at all.

Silently grumbling to herself, she finally managed to convince herself to roll out of bed and head to the bathroom to wash up. A few seconds after she locked the bathroom door behind her, she heard the front door slam, and then all was quiet. Clover had gone off to her date with the new boy, and Alex was headed for soccer practice, leaving her all alone.

Her reflection in the mirror showed a girl with unruly hair and an absolutely apathetic look in her eyes. _It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. _She splashed some water on her face, combed her hair, and brushed her teeth, making no effort to beautify herself in any way besides taking care of the bare essentials. What was the point?

The emotional burden that she carried around seemed to be getting heavier with each passing day, and today it felt particularly heavy. Looking out of the penthouse windows, she saw that it was beginning to rain, a relatively rare occurrence in the midst of a southern California summer. That certainly wasn't helping her mood.

She recalled what Jerry had told her a few days earlier, that she needed to take care of herself and take some time off from work. She'd told him that she had barely eaten in the past few months; her spying technique had suffered as a result. She felt like she was a burden to everyone – to her parents, to her friends, to Jerry, and to WOOHP. She just wanted _not _to feel anything for once – nothing but pure numbness, as she would eventually disappear into oblivion.

But there was no way she could accomplish this by herself. She was getting so weak that she didn't even have it in her to finish this off once and for all. Being stuck in this unhappy middle ground was only leaving her gloomy. Her perception of others' emotions around her was also getting softer, taking the edges off of them. She could sense what others were feeling, but none of them really made a significant impact on her.

Then it struck her. How had she not thought of this earlier? There was one person who would be more than willing to assist her, considering how much _he _detested her and wanted nothing more than for her to be dead. Making up her mind, she resolved to make this decision her final one as she dressed herself and exited the house.

Half an hour later, she found herself standing outside his prison cell, knowing that there was no way out after this. She had to be ready to take the plunge at this point. _It was all for the best. _She let out the breath she'd been holding and opened the door using her agent ID, letting herself in.

His eyes snapped open as he looked up to see who his newest visitor was, and he was mildly surprised to see that it was Sam. Unsure of what she was doing here, considering that she had been so eager in the past to get him locked up in here, he tried to guess her intentions. Maybe she was here to transport him to another maximum security holding facility. About to make a snide remark, he stopped short when he realized that he was looking at a very different girl from the one he knew so well. Her face was pale, with a slight grayish tinge to it, and her normally smooth, fiery red hair had lost its shine. The defiant look that was one of her signature characteristics was noticeably gone.

Before he had time to ask her what had happened, she spoke. "Tim," she began, using his first name since there was no purpose in deriding the man who was her only hope for getting her out of this rut permanently, "I need your help. I'm sad and tired and I can't do this anymore. Do what you've always wanted to me; I don't want to resist." With her last words, she sat down next to him in a sluggish slump, closing her eyes and waiting for him to brutally murder her at any second. Why wouldn't he? She had just invaded his privacy; besides, it was precisely what both of them wanted.

She didn't notice that he was staring at her with an expression of pure shock that eventually turned to sorrow as he figured out what she was getting at, and he could safely say that he didn't like it at all. Whatever had happened to her, he couldn't bear seeing her in this state. A few moments later, she felt his strong arms wrap around her, and she smiled secretly to herself, knowing that she was right to count on him for this. He was most likely about to squeeze or suffocate her to death.

But the attack never came. Instead, much to her surprise, he seemed to be holding her in a warm, comforting embrace. Then she felt him lean down and press his cheek against hers, while whispering gently.

"As much of a pest as you can be, you don't deserve to die Samantha."

She felt his cheek tighten as his lips curled into a tiny smirk, and he pulled her closer towards him. And it was at that moment in time, while resting in the arms of her worst enemy, that Sam discovered that she didn't think she deserved to die either.

She smiled again, this time in gratitude to him that he had decided to spare her life, and returned his embrace.


End file.
